Spirituality of Mother Teresa Casini
Mother Teresa Casini's spirituality follows the main lines of that "re-launching" of priestly
sanctity, especially that of Diocesan priesthood, which has had a profound effect on the
progress of the Church between the two Vatican Councils.
The names of two women stand out in this movement: Margaret Luise Claret de la Touche and
our own Teresa Casini.
The association is not a chance one. The two women did not know each other during their
lifetime, but their thought and work are so complementary that they immediately appear as
two aspects of an individual vocation.
Mother de la Touche had the work of revealing to Priests the deepest reason for their call to
sanctity, and that is the infinite love given them by the Heart of Jesus.
Mother Casini had the task of revealing the mystery
of that Heart's infinite anguish in the presence of the
priest's sin and mediocrity. Mother Casini's
spirituality is entirely dominated by the idea of this
divine anguish. Here is how she exhorts her
daughters: "The thought and the desire of consoling
the pierced Heart of Jesus should always be alive in
the Oblate...love and sorrow drove Jesus to make
His voice heard in the depths of our heart, and this
love and sorrow cause Him to desire and to want
holiness in the priests dear to Him. He wants the
Oblate to sacrifice herself, to pray, to supplicate, to
work and grow weary for the sanctification of these
dear people...He loves these souls with an immense
love...His Heart seeks out people who will pray,
suffer and make reparation for them."
Mother Casini understood her vocation as an Oblate in the maximum sense of the word. One
may be offered in a variety of degrees ranging from the general situation of fundamental
fidelity to one's state of grace, to the point of being totally and always at the disposition of
divine justice so as to cooperate with the accomplishing of divine mercy. This latter state is the
victimal oblation, the one Jesus Christ chose for Himself.
This sort of oblation, if we take it seriously, is not an action. It is a state. It is not totally
expressed by a formula, it is not consummated in a moment of heroism and it is not
accomplished once and for all. It is a state of committing one's life, and it is accomplished at
every moment with that perennial new beginning which is proper to every spiritual step
forward.
Mother Casini described the wearying and exalting journey of her own going up to Mount
Calvary, not so much in the usual form of a spiritual diary or perhaps in a summary of her own
interior experiences, but rather in the objective and practical form of the journey she outlined
for those whom God called to follow her on the difficult path of her own way.
This journey has two stages. The first one goes from one's vocation to the victimal state, to the
preparation of the victim for the offering. The second goes from the offering to its
consummation.
The parallel between the Host on the altar and the little host
in the convent is often written about by Mother Casini. But
this is not a simple teaching tool; it is one of the keys to her
spirituality. If a victim is truly such, she knows this and
wants to live in a continual act of sacrifice and immolation.
But, Mother adds with some slight and understandable
doubt, seeing her wide experience of souls and what happens
to them, "...not just the ideal of sacrifice but an effective and
practical one. The Oblate must be able to understand and
suffer Christ's suffering with the full and absolute will to
please God in all her daily actions, in her perfect observance
of the rule, and especially in her ready and total abandon in
God and to all His dispositions. This is the foundation of her
donation to the Lord.
Mother Teresa discovered the treasure of Jesus' Eucharistic Virtues, and in them she finds the
divine model for what must be the sacrificial virtues of a true Oblate. She writes: "The life
Jesus leads in the Sacrament of His love, and which the Oblate must imitate and make her own
is this; a life of generous and limitless sacrifice... a life of incessant prayer ...a life of
obedience… a life of poverty…”. We are at the heart of Mother Casini's spirituality.
Mother understood reparation as a form of that overflowing love which Jesus cherishes for His
Priests and, through them, for souls. She considers herself as always sharing intimately in this
love and such a sharing in a woman's heart has to assume the form of maternal oblation.
The activity which she recommends to her daughters must not, however, be contrasted with
their reparative oblation, which remains the essence of their vocation, but must be itself the
occasion and the substance of their perennial sacrifice as Oblates.
So, we are not talking about oblation and activity, but of oblation only, confirmed in the
interior offering of one's life at every instant, committed to observance of the Rule and to the
work of priestly service, spiritual service most of all. Oblates by their special vocation must
pray a great deal for priests to obtain from God their fidelity to grace and to the holiness
proper to the priestly state. But not spiritual service alone. And here we are talking about
Mother Casini’s works.
Although the Institute had been born with clear cut characteristics, it had not yet said exactly
what the works were which it would do. After some
experiments the Little Friends of Jesus came and became the
official work. But, side by side with it, another one was
being done without defined programs or structures. Mother
Teresa's great charity toward priests had led her to sense that
one of the causes of a falling-off in the priestly spirit could
sometimes be found in their isolation, and sometimes in their
abandoned state in which they, the great forgotten ones, are
compelled to live. And so she began to make the first timid
attempts by preparing meals for them in the Institute itself,
choosing the best she had available.
Every day she sent the Sisters to bring meals she had prepared with her own hands to some
sick priests and she helped the needy ones with alms which often represented all she herself
possessed; and she would have done more, but "... we must await the hour of God."
WE HAVE BEEN GIVING SOME BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES, GUIDELINES FOR A
HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTE BUT ALSO EXTREMELY INTERESTING FROM THE
POINT OF VIEW OF THE SPIRITUALITY THEY REVEAL! NOT AN ENTIRELY
CONTEMPLATIVE LIFESTYLE, NOT REALLY AN ACTIVE ONE. AND SO WE CALL
IT “OBLATIVE” AND HAVE SAID EVERYTHING.
Without doubt it is an austere spirituality, a robust spirituality, but for this very reason a
spirituality shot through with serenity and peace, with smiling and relaxed happiness, because
"... where one loves, one does not feel the work".
Most Reverend Mario deSantis
Villa Maria Teresa
50 Warner Road Hubbard, OH 44425
P: 330.759.9329 F: 330.759.7290
E-Mail: [email protected]